Promise Me
by turquoise09
Summary: Sarah Jane finally gets the chance to tell the Doctor how she feels about him, even after he says goodbye. Takes place after School Reunion. My first fic, so please bear with me!


Promise Me

**This is a little Sarah Jane/Four one-shot I've come up with. Am I the only one who wonders what happened to Sarah after _School Reunion_? Well, I came up with this idea and just had to write it. My first fic, so constructive criticism only please!**

I'd been hearing about all the strange occurrences at the school lately. I honestly couldn't help myself; I just had to see what was going on over there. So, I called up the headmaster and requested to be able to come and do a story on the school. The children's grades had gone up drastically, and he supposed that I had merely wanted to write about it. In the beginning, I'd merely been there for investigative purposes. I never imagined that I could have ever with an old friend of mine.

K-9 had broken down a few weeks earlier. It hurt to look at the poor boy, because it reminded me of everything I'd been through all those years ago. Of course, he was my best friend and the only connection to the Doctor I had left, so I covered him with a blanket and put him in the trunk of my car. When I headed over to the school, I made sure he was in there, in case a miracle came along. Little did I know.

When I was led into the staff room, I almost instantly noticed a young man smiling at me. He was a tall, thin man, with dark brown hair stuck up at the front. After a moment, I went over and introduced myself. He called himself John Smith, and at the very mention of that name, I remembered the Doctor's goofy, boyish smile.

_I had a friend who went by that name sometimes._ I told him a bit breathlessly.

_It's a common name._ He replied with a handsome smile.

_He was a very uncommon man. _That was the understatement of the millenium. I said goodbye to the teacher, and continued with my tour. Unfortunately, the rest of the time my focus was a bit off. That physics teacher had gotten me thinking of the Doctor all over again. I couldn't stop thinking of Daleks, Davros, Sutekh, the Loch Ness MOnster, mummies, and all the other crazy monsters, aliens, and people I'd run away from in all my time with the Doctor.

When I got home, the first thing I did was lie down on the sofa. For the next hour and a half, I lay completely still, my eyes shut. I pictured the Doctor perfectly, even after all these years. The first Doctor I'd ever known, with his curly white hair, frilled shirts, large nose, and even his voice, the commanding, sharp tongue he had. That only took about fifteen minutes total. The rest of the time I envisioned the other Doctor: his curly brown hair, his big bug eyes, his towering height, the impossibly long scarf he'd always worn, the way he smiled, his hand holding out a bag of jelly babies. I could almost taste the candy on my tongue. He'd been strange, that's for sure, but no one could ever compare to him. That's why I hadn't glanced at another man twice in over twenty years. Okay...that's not true. I'd tried several times, but they all ended up reminding me of the Doctor in one way or another. After a good deal of time, I all but gave up on my love life. Harry and I had tried once, but that hadn't gone too well. Total lack of chemistry there. Besides, Harry is just about the worst kisser in the universe.

When I was younger, I'd always had a corner of my mind that fantasized about the Doctor. Some women may not have found him that attractive, but I most certainly did! On multiple occasions I thought I saw him on the street or in a photo, but it never was him. I never gave up looking for him. A part of my heart would always belong to him, but I needed to know whether he'd kept it or not.

As you can imagine, I was shocked to see the TARDIS in the school. The moment I saw the deep blue hulk of the Police Box, my mind went into overdrive. Every moment I'd spent with the Doctor, every nanosecond came rushing back. This couldn't be true. He must have regenerated by now, or I would have spotted him from a mile away.

He had regenerated. Various times. And that Rose girl, she was his new assistant, or 'companion' as she called herself. She didn't know it, but I saw a certain light in her eyes when she looked at the Doctor. It was the same light I'd seen in the Brigadier's eyes a thousand times. It meant she'd seen him regenerate. It looked like she was wearing a large amount of eye makeup, meaning it'd happened recently and she was still upset about it. He must have been something special to her, 'cause the Doctor was absolutely gorgeous. Then again, I'd been a bit busy worrying and getting out of trouble to mourn when the Doctor had regenerated. Rose was still mourning, even if she didn't realize it herself.

When all of that mess was over, I'd gotten my dog back, and I was home, I rushed upstairs to the attic. There, I dug through an old cardboard box that I'd labeled **The Doctor**. I rummaged around for a minute before I found what I'd been looking for:a picture of the Doctor. After pulling it out and dusting it off a bit, I headed downstairs to the dining room.

I just stared at the image for what seemed like ages, absently running my fingers over his big, noticeable features

_He didn't forget me._ I remembered myself say when I heard K9's message from the Doctor. He had promised me that he wouldn't forget me, and I just knew he was somehow incapable of that. Turns out, I was right.

_Why couldn't you have just come back for me?_ I heard myself whisper, my voice choked up. I watched in amazement as a tear rolled off my face and onto the Doctor's smiling one. _Fitting. I'm crying over you, old friend. Seems you're crying with me for once._

For who knows how long after that, I cried my heart out for a man who probably hadn't existed for decades, if not centuries. I'd always told myself that he was fine, and still swaggering through time and space, smiling like a madman and offering strangers jelly babies. Now I knew he wasn't, and the reality hit me.

_Maybe I did love him. Maybe he did love me. But look at him now, with that pretty little thing he's got. She doesn't realize how much her future will be like my life has been. But, maybe she'll realize how she feels and get the guts to tell him. If I could, I would go back to when I said goodbye, and I would've walked right back into that TARDIS and told him how I felt. Too late now._

I finally got off my butt and stopped staring at a picture of the long dead after ages of sitting. Needing to clear my head, I went for a walk. There was a nice park nearby that I was quite fond of taking strolls in. After walking around for about fifteen minutes, I reached a bench and sat down hard. Suddenly, the wind picked up, and a hat blew onto my lap. It was a beaten up brown Indiana Jones-ish fedora, just like the one the Doctor had worn all those years ago. Out of curiosity, I flipped it over and found several curly brown hairs on the inside.

"No, it couldn't be..."I muttered.

"Pardon me, miss," said a familiar voice. I looked up and saw the Doctor, _my_ _Doctor_, standing right there in front of me. "But it appears that you've got my hat. I'm quite fond of it, if you wouldn't mind returning it."

"N-no, not at all. Here you go." I smiled and handed him the hat. It appeared that he didn't recognize me, so I decided to play along.

"If you don't mind me saying, miss," he gave a cautious look at me before continuing, "I'm not the best person for figuring emotions, but you seem a bit upset. I pride myself in being quite good at helping people. May I?"

"It feels more like regret, to be honest. But I suppose you wouldn't want to hear about an old lady's mistakes."

"Mind you, miss, I'm probably a good deal older than you are." Like I could forget that he was centuries old. And could change his face.

"Well, then we've probably made similar mistakes."

"No doubt. What kind of mistake are you dealing with, might I inquire?"

"The one that got away." I told him, not even daring to think about looking at him.

"Did he get away or did you?" the Doctor asked.

"Both,"I choked.

"I've been in a similar situation. I had this...companion, we'll say. Her name was Sarah Jane Smith, but I just called her Sarah. She and I traveled for a while, and everything seemed fine. But, one day, I had to leave, and she couldn't come with me. I made a promise to her that I'm very intent on keeping, and I never came back for her. I don't know why I didn't, though. Suppose it's too late, though. She's probably got a life by now."

"Oh, you don't know that for sure. She might still be waiting for you." I said consolingly.

"Are you?" he questioned, turning to look at me.

"Maybe. I found him again not too long ago, but seems he'd forgotten about me. I was replaced with a blonde."

"Is it always a blonde? I bet if you look through history, you'll find it to be something of a pattern."

"I don't doubt you."

We both sat in silence for a few moments before my cell phone vibrated. I fished it out of my pocket and found that K9 had figured out how to send me a text, and apparently was freaking out and wanted me to come home really badly. I chuckled at my dog's message, earning a confused look from the Doctor.

"Sorry, I have to go. An old friend of mine just got into town, and he needs my help with something."

"No, I understand. Duty calls."

"Duty calls," I agreed.

With a wave goodbye, i started jogging home.

"Hold on!" a voice behind me cried. I turned and started jogging backwards.

"I'm afraid I never got a name!" the Doctor cried, his hands cupped around his mouth.

I grinned. This was the moment of truth. "My name's Sarah!" I called back. "Sarah Jane Smith!"

And with that, i turned back around and ran all the way home. Once back, I collapsed onto the sofa and laughed so hard I cried. He had come back for me without knowing it, and for once it had been my turn to be the clever one.

I picked up the picture from the table. I'd had it taken on a trip to 2013 America, though it had taken much arguing before he'd let me take the picture. I traced the frozen image of the smiling man for a moment. I gently kissed the picture's forehead, then set it down and headed over to find my dog.

He had promised never to forget me, and I'd just made sure of it.


End file.
